Background

Meet the Press is America's longest running news panel program. It is also both Radio and Television's longest running news panel program. As a contemporaneous reflection of American cultural, political and geopolitical history it's an invaluable canon of recordings--to some, the most important canon of recordings from The Golden Age of Radio. Two other long-running topical and news panel programs of the era were:

1933-1955 The University of Chicago Round Table

1935-1956 America's Town Meeting (America's Town Hall Meeting of the Air)

Meet the Press first aired over Radio as The American Mercury Presents Meet the Press, a 1945 program over the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS), presented as a promotional showcase for Lawrence E. Spivak's magazine, The American Mercury, which Spivak had acquired from Alfred Knopf in 1935. [Note: Wikipedia's The American Mercury article erroneously cites a transfer of ownership from Knopf's American Mercury editor, Paul A. Palmer to Spivak in 1939. We take a great deal of Wikipedia's revisionist history articles with a molecule of salt.]

Eventually contemplating a Radio showcase for The American Mercury, Spivak enlisted the talents of one of The American Mercury's freelance reporters, Miss Martha Rountree, who'd already worked in Radio. Spivak, primarily a business manager, asked Miss Rountree to review hisconcept for the radio show. It was Miss Rountree that subsequently created the new radio program, coining it The American Mercury Presents Meet the Press, on June 24, 1945.

On November 6, 1947 while still airing on MBS, it began airing over the NBC Television network as, simply, Meet the Press. The Radio program also adopted the new name. Miss Rountree's creation at that point, Lawrence Spivak partnered with her as co-producer and business partner shortly after Meet The Press premiered over NBC Television. A program called Meet the Press had previously aired over NBC's WMAQ in 1943 [see review below], presented in a 15-minute format dramatizing accounts of news reporters and journalists. Given NBC's ownership of the program title, it seemed a perfect title for the new Television program and its Radio counterpart, over competitor network, MBS.

The format of Meet the Press was initially presented as a 30-minute press conference with a single guest and a panel of reporters, journalists, critics, and political pundits. The program occasionally devoted an entire hour to the program for coverage of special events or political opportunities. Meet the Press' first moderator and host was Miss Martha Rountree. She stepped down November 1, 1953, and was replaced by Ned Brooks, a frequent panelist and substitute moderator, who assumed the moderator/host position with the November 1, 1953 broadcast. Lawrence Spivak, a regular panelist, subsequently assumed that role with the broadcast of January 1, 1966. Lawrence Spivak ultimately retired on November 9, 1975, relinquishing the role to Bill Monroe, who served as moderator until June 2, 1984.

The Television history of Meet the Press is amply described elsewhere. We've narrowed our focus in this article to the Radio and Radio/Television simulcasts of the series during The Golden Age of Radio.

The Mutual [WOL] Radio and Miss Martha Rountree era

For many dyed in the wool Golden Age Radio fans, Mutual flagship station WOR was 'Radio Central' throughout the era--for politics junkies of the era it was Washington, D.C.'s Mutual key station WOL. Though not confined to airing from WOL, the overwhelming number of The American Mercury Meet the Press programs originated from the nation's capitol. Not generally recognized as one of Mutual's powerhouse stations, WOL nevertheless found itself in a coveted location when it came to political news--because of Meet the Press.

With The American Mercury run of Meet the Press soon finding no end of politicians beating a path to its microphones, Miss Martha Rountree soon found herself shuttling back and forth between WOR and WOL on an often weekly basis. Meet the Press broadcasts eventually originated from Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and several other political centers, in addition to WOR and WOL. Taking on a life and identity of its own, Meet the Press found itself in the enviable position of having to turn away more candidate guests than it could accomodate.

Indeed, the program soon found itself making news of its own, widely reported throughout print media of the era. Young Senator John F. Kennedy once dubbed Meet the Press "The Fifth Estate", in recognition of its extraordinary influence and impact on news and politics of the era. And it wasn't simply national news figures that it covered. Chinese, Korean, German, Soviet, Indian, French, Cuban, and British newsmakers soon found themselves on the Meet the Press dais, facing Miss Rountree and three to five other panelist-interrogators.Miss Rountree--and occasionally Mr. Spivak--more often than not found themselves verbally restraining some of the more spirited and opinionated weekly panelists to keep the questioning under control; but that was a last resort. As it evolved over the years, the very point of the panelists' questions was to elicit breaking news from its guests. It's also clear in listening to the Golden Age Radio era run of Meet the Press--over both Radio and Television--that both panelists and guests were far less restrained than the panelists and newsmakers of today. Even more noticeable was the tact, guile and cleverness with which the earliest inquisitors often tripped up their guests.

Miss Rountree herself, an otherwise slight, slender, attractive and extremely charming figure of the era, was no shrinking violet when it came to bearing down on both guests and panelists. Mrs. William Randolph Hearst once reportedly described Miss Rountree as "a diesel engine under a lace handkerchief."Lawrence Spivak for his part, grew into the role of moderator, pointedly honing his questioning skills and techniques over the years. We personally found Miss Rountree's influence in shaping Meet the Press the most interesting, dogged, and compelling of the series' moderators--with the possible exception of MSNBC's recently deceased Tim Russert from the modern era of Meet The Press.

Almost from its inception, Meet the Press characterized itself as a 'Press Conference of The Air.' It also took its disclaimers as to the unrehearsed spontaneity of the program very seriously. The guests of the era met only co-producers Miss Rountree and Lawrence Spivak prior to airtime. The series went as far as to have the panelists of the earlier era enter and be seated only after introducing the afternoon's guest. Miss Rountree typically introduced the panelists to the guest and Mr. Spivak as they were being seated at either side of the guest. Once Meet the Press' credibility and integrity became well established and trusted, the programs opened with all of the panelists, the guest and the moderator seated together. Over its rich history, Meet the Press has introduced North America--and the world--to virtually every important newsmaker, politician, and world leader of the 20th Century--and beyond. Here's just a sampling of the topics and emerging newsmakers Meet the Press interviewed during its Radio years:

Jan. 1946 - A panel on The Pearl Harbor Investigation.

Dec. 1947 - Senator Robert Taft on the Taft-Hartley Amendment.

Dec. 1948 - Menachem Begin, former commander of the Irgun underground, on the Arab-Israeli conflict and his first goodwill campaign visit to the U.S..

Dec. 1949 - Mrs. India Edwards, as guest before a rare all-female panel of journalists, fielding questions on the Democratic agenda of Congress and President Truman.

Jul. 1950 - General David Sarnoff, on his proposal to invest in a $200M ring of Voice of America broadcasting stations around Soviet Russia to counter Communist propaganda.

Aug. 1950 - American Legion Commander, George Craig, ostensibly on the topic of increased training for the military. It becomes a platform for discussing Soviet hegemony throughout the world in the face of exponentially rising costs of military rearmament during the growth of the military-industrial complex.

These few highlights by no means represent all of the breaking news items or newsmakers of the era, but they give an indication of the depth, breadth and reach of many of the topics and revelations first disclosed or discussed over Meet the Press throughout its Radio years and early Television years.

Series Derivatives:

The American Mercury Presents Meet the Press; Meet the Press Television program

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex, our ears, newspaper listings, and the Internet. The most inaccurate circulating logs were those of The Vintage Radio Place, Radio Memories and the OTRR.

OTRisms:

Hickerson asserts that Meet the Press first aired on December 1, 1946, while at the same time stating that the program aired in 1945 but not in New York. What New York has to do with it is anyone's guess. We've long contrasted the New York-centric predisposition of both The Hickerson Guide and the 'otr collecting' community and the wider, far more accurate view of the 'vintage Radio preservation' community. Contrary to Hickerson and the 'otr community', Radio did not begin and end with New York City broadcasts. Radio broad-casting began in Pennsylvania and California well in advance of New York. This New York-centric influence seems to stem from one influential 'otr collector' based in New York City.

DISCLAIMER: The log below is presented in deference to the vintage Radio collecting community only. It is both incomplete and mostly unresearched as to verifiable broadcast dates. We have only auditioned the recordings below for their guests and titles. We have not researched the dates as of this writing. We present them only to correct the inaccurate circulating logs for this series, which for the past ten years at least, have been overwhelmingly inaccurate and quite frankly a source of great embarrassment to American Broadcasting history. We continue to fail to understand how other civilized countries can manage to accurately name their 20th Century historical figures, but America simply can't. The Meet the Press canon is without a doubt the worst identified circulating canon in vintage Radio collecting. It makes American vintage Radio collectors look like morons. Genuine vintage Radio collectors value their cultural history. OTR accumulators and commercial vendors care not one whit for vintage Radio history. The relatively insignificant handful of OTR vendors who've so absurdly titled the circulating canon of Meet The Press by no means represent the greater vintage Radio preservation community at large.

We regret that these few vendors' inordinate influence has so misdirected the search engine caches of the Internet with often absurdly inaccurate titles. What's patently obvious is that this small--but influential--subset of commercial vendors have little respect for American history. This endemic failure to accurately identify and name 20th Century historical figures simply serve to dumb down the Vintage Radio collecting hobby. If it's considered only 'old-time radio', what possible value might anyone ascribe to it? The answer is simple: it's not 'old-time' anything--it's American history. Living, vibrant, colorful American history--our cultural legacy as American citizens. And indeed in the case of the Meet The Press canon, nowhere else in Golden Age Radio can we hear with our own ears how miserably we, as a nation, have failed to learn from our own history. As one listens to the surviving canon of Meet The Press it becomes obvious that very little has really changed over the past seventy years. Even worse, with the far tighter centralization and control of media, we have far less opportunity than in the 1940s and 1950s to hear balanced news, opinion and rational discourse over either Radio, Cable, or Television. Even worse, this shameful situation is absolutely--and without question--by design.

Influence peddlers throughout world history learned early on that, like the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz, it's all about distraction--keeping the audience focused on the 'big lie' directly in front of them, and not the greater historical picture. That's how the dumbing down of an entire population works. Keep them looking elsewhere, never looking backward--only forward. The less the populace remembers of the past--in the revisionists' view--the easier it becomes to revise history as the influence peddlers reshape its memory. Lessons from the past? Nah. Don't look behind the curtain. Focus only on the now and the future. That's where they want us looking.

And that's why we'll continually remind the readers of these pages that it's to the past we need to be looking--far moreso than the future. The Meet The Press canon of recordings are prima facie evidence of the recurring cycles of American culture and politics--and how they're shaped by persuading the weaker, less educated and less inquisitive majority of the population to continually ignore the past. . . lest they recognize its obvious cycles and lessons. Is this a political observation? Categorically no. It's an observation as part of our obligation as American citizens to remain aware of and attentive to how our opinions and beliefs are even more aggressively shaped, twisted, and 'spun' by lopsidedly powerful political, religious, and corporate interests.

Encyclopedia Britannica Film, 'Democracy,' from 1945

Encyclopedia Britannica Film, 'Despotism,' from 1946

National Education Association film, 'Freedom to Learn,' from 1954

There's nothing 'old-time'--or political--about the above three films. They represent objective observations of the state of Democracy and freedom in both the abstract and in response to the turbulent era between World War II and the Cold War years. All three are scrupulously apolitical. And all three bear revisiting every year or so as reminders and waypoints in the evolution of the state of our democracy. And indeed, all three films--from over 60 years ago--are chillingly reminiscent of events and transitions of the recent 10 years.

We don't yet have all of the circulating Radio and simulcast Meet The Press recordings among our holdings, but we've correctly identified the guests for the almost 800 in our own collection. We've cataloged those below. We ask this for all of our logs, but in this instance we adamantly seek any corrections or updates to our own findings and auditions of these recordings. Please don't hesitate to drop us a line if you encounter any errors in the Guest names or titles below.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

We continue to provide honest research into these wonderful Golden Age Radio programs simply because we love to do it. If you feel that we've provided you with useful information or saved you some valuable time regarding this log--and you'd like to help us even further--you can help us keep going. Please consider a small donation here:

We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article and log copyright 2009 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]

'Meet the Press' co-creator Rountree dies at 87

WASHINGTON (AP)  Martha Rountree, co-creator and first moderator of the NBC News program "Meet the Press" has died at age 87.

Ms. Rountree, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died Monday at Sibley Hospital. In addition to originating and coproducing "Meet the Press,'' she was also the only woman moderator in the show's 52-year history. She also produced several other television shows, including "Keep Posted," "Washington Exclusive" and "Capitol Close Up."

In 1945, she joined Lawrence Spivak in introducing "Meet the Press" as a radio show, and two years later the program aired on television for the first time. She went on the lecture circuit in 1953 when she sold her share of the show to Spivak after a coin toss

Ms. Rountree was born in Gainesville, Fla., in 1911, and studied at the University of South Carolina. She returned to Florida as a reporter for the Tampa Tribune but moved in 1938 to New York, where she worked as an editor and freelance journalist. She joined NBC seven years later.

In 1965, the award-winning journalist founded Leadership, a nonprofit political research organization, and was its president until 1988. Ms. Rountree's husband, advertising executive Oliver M. Presbrey, died in 1988.

She is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren, a brother and a sister.